Paat Baja - the leaf trumptet

What if someone told you that there is a musical instrument in the hills that has neither strings nor keys, can neither be bought nor sold and is found all around the place but is seen by close to none?

Enter the humble and unassuming leaf, also known as the “Paat Baja”.

Beauty might or might not lie in the eyes of the beholder but the potential of a musical instrument is definitely tapped into by the hands of a master player. Making music with the help of the humble leaf has a long history and has been practised in many nations ranging from China to Brazil, and Australia to Nepal. In China, recorded knowledge of the wood leaf as an instrument dates back to the 7th to 10th centuries A.D, being depicted in sculptures and paintings.

Largely falling under the temperate climate with wet summers caused by monsoon rains, Darjeeling’s flora comprises evergreen, semi-evergreen, temperate and alpine forests, thus plenty of material for leaf playing. Having said that, not all leaves can produce the requisite sound as playing a leaf requires the correct balance of rigidity, flexibility and thickness.

The technique of leaf playing requires both sensitivity and persistence. The seasoned player curls the edge of a leaf into a semi-circle, places the arch between the lips and blows air across it. The movement of the lips controls the pitch of the sound and careful control of one’s breath is used to keep the tempo. Upon blowing air, the leaf temporarily moves away from the lips when the player blows and its elasticity brings it back onto the lip. The oscillating movement sets it in vibration to produce a sound which is manipulated by the player to play different melodies.

Leaf playing shares a lot of similarities with whistling: the range of a leafophone depends on the size of the player's mouth and is mostly in the higher notes. Lower notes may be covered by using breathing techniques or by using thicker leaves. In the hands of a skilful leaf player, a range of 2-3 octaves is not uncommon.

Leaf playing has been mankind’s oldest sallies in artistic expression using the resources of Nature and the tradition of leaf playing lives to this day in the highlands of Darjeeling and the Eastern Himalayas in the form of the humble “Paat Baja”.